Minnesota Criminals

Most people make a bucket list of things that they would like to do before they die. Some want to learn how to sky dive, climb a mountain or visit a European country. However, a Florida woman had other ideas for her bucket list.

The Florida woman who suffers from non-terminal leukemia and bipolar disorder decided that robbing a bank should be on her bucket list. As a result, Patricia Edwards, 51, walked into a Bank of America branch last week in Sanford, Fla., and handed a teller a note demanding money. She told police that there was no real planning to this robbery just an impulse to rob a bank.

When she was arrested three days later police found out that she wasn’t taking her medication at the time of the bank robbery. She claims that she was sorry for the bank heist. However, she remains in custody on two counts of robbery and a $20,000 bail.

Next time she might want to consider sky diving instead of robbing a bank to check off on her bucket list.

Currently on the BCA Facebook site is a three-year-old cold case. This is the case of a body found in the Mississippi River at the Treasure Island Casino Marina. It is a body of a newborn baby girl. So far, there have been no leads to who this baby was. The site has a composite picture created to show what the baby may have looked like.

In addition, the Facebook site provides information to the public about internet safety, Crime Alerts as well as general crime prevention information.

In San Francisco, California, medical marijuana users are taking their cases to court and getting their felony charges dismissed. Unfortunately, many police and prosecutors are finding out that there is a “gray area” between their state law and federal law.

The California Supreme Court is tossing out many felony marijuana cases as well as many other marijuana possessions. The gray area is the question, “What is the maximum amount of cannabis a medical marijuana patient can possess?”

So far, the high court has struck down a 7-year-old state law that imposed an 8-ounce limit on the amount of pot medical users of marijuana could possess. The court said patients are entitled to a “reasonable” amount of the drug to treat their ailments. Law enforcement officials say the ruling has made the murky legal landscape of marijuana policy in California even more challenging to enforce.

In 1996, California voters legalized medical marijuana. However, just like in many other states local laws may legalize marijuana but federal law view marijuana as illegal. To make matters worse, this November, state voters will have a ballot measure to vote on that legalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana. Once again, what is meant by “small amounts”?

Once again, stupid criminals make law enforcement easy. This time, two criminals thought calling ahead to rob a bank was just like ordering a pizza.

In Fairfield, Connecticut, police arrested 27-year-old Albert Bailey and a 16-year-old boy. They called the People’s United Bank branch in Fairfield and told them to have a bag of money ready for them. They must have been in a hurry and thought calling ahead would make it easier to rob the bank.

Ten minutes later, they showed up to pick up the bag of money; the police were waiting for them; and arrested them.

Many of these teenagers, even children as young as 12, are looking at felony child pornography charges and being listed for many years on a sex offender registry. It seems that sexting among teenagers has become the “in” thing to do. How the law handles this explosion of sending nude pictures will determine what we are teaching our children today.

Last year, Nebraska, Utah and Vermont changed their laws to reduce penalties for teenagers who engage in such activities. This year, according to the National Council on State Legislatures, 14 more states are considering legislation that would treat young people who engage in sexting differently from adult pornographers and sexual predators.

However, one district attorney recently threatened to bring child pornography charges against girls whose pictures showing them scantily dressed on classmates’ cell phones. The first federal appellate opinion in this sexting case recognized that a prosecutor had gone too far in trying to enforce adult moral standards.

In reality, young people are rarely, if ever, jailed under the child pornography laws for sexting. Some of the 14 states considering legislation would make sexting a misdemeanor, while others would treat it like juvenile offenses like truancy or running away.

Is this what we want to teach our children? Do we want to give them a slap on the wrist and tell them not to do this anymore? Or do we want our children to understand that there are consequences to their actions? Will today’s “sexting” child become tomorrow’s pedophile or rapist? No one knows for sure. What is important is to teach our children to be good citizens, obey laws and be morally and ethically upstanding.

Last fall, many Minnesota cities adopted a social host ordinance that makes it a misdemeanor to host or allow an event where underage drinking occurs. The reason for this ordinance was to place blame on one individual, primarily the person who organizes or hosts a party or event where underage drinking takes place at parties.

Recently, police ticketed two men for hosting a party that led to more than 50 citations against 35 people. The criminal citations cited these people who are responsible for hosting this gathering where underage drinking occurred, regardless of whether they supplied the alcohol. The maximum penalty is a $700 fine and up to nine days in jail.

Minnesota Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) encouraged this ordinance because it shows how important it is to address the how and where the problem takes place and not simply what the problem is. This ordinance imposes the responsibility on the hosts of parties to ensure that their party goers are not underage and to be aware of the problems of underage drinking.

Take for instance the incident of a natural gas pipe was shoved through a hole drilled into the roof of the gang enforcement unit’s headquarters. The building filled with the flammable vapor but an officer smelled the vapor and everyone was evacuated before anything happened.

Then there was a ballistic contraption that was attached to a sliding security fence around the building. When an officer opened the black steel gate, it triggered the mechanism that sent a bullet within eight inches of his face. Thankfully, the officer was not hurt. Another attempt was made to booby trap a police officer’s unmarked car while he went into a convenience store.

Police believe it may be the work of an outlaw motorcycle gang, the Vagos. It all started when a member of this gang died and the police gang force monitored his funeral services. This seemed to anger the members of the gang. There are about 200 Vagos members in Riverside County. This gang specializes in methamphetamine sales, identity theft and violence. Recently about 30 members of the Vagos gang were arrested as part of a crackdown across the state and in Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

Thieves broke into an Eli Lilly warehouse over the weekend in the town of Enfield, Connecticut and stole as much as $75 million in prescription drugs. This warehouse stored Eli Lilly & Co (LLY.N) prescription medicines such as Prozac, Cymbalta, Zyprexa and other medicines.

During a violent rainstorm, the thieves drilled a hole in the ceiling of the warehouse, disabled a burglar alarm in the building and carted away dozens of pallets. Police officials speculate the drugs could be headed for the black market and possibly overseas where the demand is great for medicines made in the U.S. Common sense says that this seems to be the real the reason for the burglary.

However, an Eli Lilly spokesperson said in a published report that the loss may not have a material financial impact for the company and has not disrupted supply of medicines to the east coast. Both Connecticut police and the FBI are investigating this burglary.

During its 60th year anniversary, the FBI is celebrating this historic occasion with a book that talks about the list and shares pictures of all 494 “Top Ten” Most Wanted fugitives throughout the years.

Most of the fugitives are murderers with Thomas James Holden being the first top ten. He was wanted for killing his wife and her two brothers. Of the 494 fugitives throughout the years, 463 have been captured or located.

The shortest amount of time anyone spent on the list was Billy Austin Bryant in 1969 for two hours. The oldest was 69-year-old James J. Bulger who was added to the list in 1999.

Darrent Williams was only 24 years old and an up and coming cornerback for the Denver Bronco’s football team. On New Year’s Eve 2007, Willie Clark, a known gang member, mercilessly gunned him down outside of a local nightclub.

This trial was filled with threats and intimidations to witnesses. Willie Clark’s defense was that he wasn’t at the shooting and that his fellow gang member, Daniel Harris did the shooting. However, Daniel Harris did testify and was given plea deals on his Federal drug charges. Over 40 witnesses were called to testify in this trial. Witnesses who did testify said that Willie Clark bragged about the shooting and how Darrent Williams was disrespecting him before the shooting occurred.

Last week, a jury found Willie Clark guilty in the drive-by shooting murder of Darrent Williams. Clark unloaded his .40-caliber handgun into the limousine full of innocent people that killed Darrent Williams. The jury found him guilty of 21 counts and 2 counts of first-degree murder, 1 for the murder of Williams and 16 counts of attempted murder for each surviving passengers in the car. Willie Clark faces life in prison.

Darrent Williams was against gangs. He was planning to talk to kids in his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas about not joining gangs. He wanted to let the kids know that they could make a better life for themselves without being a gang member.

Darrent Williams’ mother was thankful of the verdict but admitted that they would never know what really happened that night. She hopes that this will help start to clean up the streets of gang members.